AAUP-backed toolkit urges students to ‘create a crisis’ on campus over ICE ties

The American Association of University Professors is sponsoring a campaign called “Schools Drop ICE,” which aims to force “colleges to drop their contracts with ICE’s key corporate enablers.”

For the campaign, the AAUP, along with Young Democratic Socialists of America, Sunrise Movement, and the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University, produced a toolkit instructing students to “create a crisis for university admin through an escalating campaign.”

“The fastest way to shrink ICE’s capacity is to cut off its private sector support. This Administration’s deportation machine depends on corporations for places to sleep, cars to drive, technology to track, planes to fly, and parking lots to stage. Colleges have real leverage over the companies providing these services,” the Schools Drop ICE website states. 

“When students and workers join together in action, we can force our schools to stop funding and normalizing ICE collaborators and take down the whole regime,” it states. 

The five target companies are Enterprise, Flock, ICE Air Carriers, Hilton, and Target. 

SDI’s website also states that it aims to build solidarity among university communities, generate new leadership, and achieve its goals without violence or destruction of property. 

Ultimately, SDI believes that “ICE, and the Trump regime generally, cannot function without the consent and collaboration of the business world. Breaking companies from ICE is the central axis for generating enough leverage to stop the regime’s terrorization campaign,” according to its website. 

Further, it aims to “build an anti-ICE, anti-authoritarian movement with enough breadth and depth to not only stop ICE, but also defeat the theft of the 2026 and 2028 elections.”

One education expert told The College Fix that this campaign could cause significant harm.

“So long as the students do not break any law or violate campus policies, they should be free to express their views. But some of the tactics recommended in the toolkit would cross the line, so institutions must be prepared to respond if students act on them,” said Steve McGuire, the Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. 

“If the authors of the toolkit were to prevail, they would do significant damage to American higher education by further politicizing it,” McGuire said. 

Similarly, Rhyen Staley, director of research at Defending Education, told The Fix, “It is incredibly disrespectful to students, their families, and college employees to disrupt and harass the academic environment and institution to throw a political temper tantrum.”

In the first phase of the toolkit, called “Grow Your Reach,” interested students are encouraged to set up an organizing committee. Additionally, it states that petitions to the administration are a vital tool. The short-term goal is to get 20 percent of students and faculty to sign. 

Methods for gathering student signatures include classroom announcements, “dorm storms,” in which organizers go door-to-door in residence halls, and brief presentations to student clubs. The campaign also emphasizes the importance of athlete involvement, particularly in efforts targeting ICE Aviation.

Further, university employees are encouraged to ask campus unions to send a petition to their members. 

In phase two, efforts are supposed to “escalate.” The toolkit’s suggestions include picketing at public events, reaching out to influential alumni, and protesting at the homes of university officials. 

Phase three is mass nonviolent disruption. Some options are “student sit-ins,” “campouts until demands are met,” and “no work, no school, no purchasing on May 1.”

Although the group declined to comment on the toolkit when reached by The Fix, the AAUP has previously spoken out against ICE. 

“We must be clear on what ICE is under the Trump administration: a militarized police force spreading terror in our communities, trampling on our fundamental rights, and undermining public safety,” AAUP President Todd Wolfson said in a statement earlier this year. 

“The AAUP defends the right to free speech, expression of political convictions, and peaceful protest on university campuses,” according to its website. 

This piece was originally published by The College Fix on April 6, 2026.